Suggestion Travel with non diving spouses

[Big Dan K]

What about adding a forum for travel with non divers? I meet a lot of other divers who are in my predicament. Our ability to do reef diving trips requires keeping the non diving spouse happy. We must find destinations and hotels our spouse likes, dive in the morning, and be back in time for lunch and afternoons/evenings with the spouse. I learn a lot sharing tips and reviews of various destinations with other divers who share my handicap

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

Do we really need another sub-forum?

Why not! If you don't like it....... then just don't read it.

 

[NothingClever]

Why not!

Because there are already 93 sub-forums. That number doesn't include the sub-sub-forums.

The more sub-forums there are, the greater the demand is on Moderators to browse and maintain them.

The more workload there is for Moderators, the need for more Moderators increases.

The more number of Moderators we have, the greater likelihood of uneven application of forum rules.

We have some super Moderators. We have a few that frustrate people greatly.

I don't think we should keep building the Board's size to fit every odd topic just because we can.

It's not a matter of "just don't read it".

 

[Billg68bg]

Jewelry! You can fix anything with jewelry!!

Actually, my non diving wife picked the last two places, and the upcoming one, so I could dive a couple times and then snorkel and spend the rest of the trip doing couples things we both enjoy. I guess I’m lucky.

 

[Billg68bg]

Do your wives not allow you to travel without them?

I wouldn’t want to. My wife is my best friend and favorite travel companion.

 

[FishWatcher747]

Also, and I hope this doesn’t come across as sounding arrogant, I don’t need any more diver training, but thank you. Just for the record, I used to teach diving myself.

In my opinion you have hit on the most fundamentally important question for divers without a natural buddy of similar skill level, interest, location, free time, vacation time and disposable income.

Unless one hits the buddy lottery one is limited to local clubs, LDS group trips, boat diving led by a guide, or hiring a guide. Or worse, instabuddies.

I was talking to a diver without a buddy who went to Bonaire. She would do boat dives in the am, staying at Buddy Dive then try to talk someone on the boat into an afternoon dive or night dive on the house reef. That is likely the best you are going to do.

For me the answer to Bonaire was solo certification, diving redundant and practicing the skills and solo diving but that may not be the right answer for you.

 

[drrich2]

I wouldn’t want to. My wife is my best friend and favorite travel companion.

You touch on an interesting topic, multi-factorial with a lot of variability. I've seen a post on SB by someone who dives almost exclusively with a spouse and if one could no longer dive, the other would probably give it up, as it's a 'couples thing' for them.

Some divers are married to a diving spouse, but their interests differ (e.g.: avid diver doing more difficult dives wed to casual diver only interested in very benign conditions).

Some are wed to non-divers and do compromise vacations. There are a range of different arrangements for that.

Some of us leave the non-diver at home and go cram a bunch of diving into the sporadic trips we want to do. That opens up liveaboards, remote destinations, cheaper trips (e.g.: some divers have lower amenities needs than some spouses). Some tend to travel with a known buddy; some of us go alone (e.g.: it's not a question of whether the spouse is a best friend and favorite traveling companion, because we don't need one for the trip).

And some of us have done a mix. My wife calls it a 'dive trip disguised as a family vacation.' I've taken 2 different approaches to this (taking mother-in-law along on both, which helped).

1.) Cram diving into a portion of the trip, aiming for 4 dives/day, and leave some days afterward free for family time.

2.) Dive 2 tanks in the morning and spend afternoons with family.

Married couples are like individuals; every one is unique, with their own 'psychology.' Some spouses are practically joined at the hip, and some have a range of activities the other's not involved in.

It works both ways. My wife loves to do driving road trips to stay at a non-1st floor ocean view hotel with her old high school buddy, look at the ocean, yak, drive and saunter around some shops, not really planning anything. I'd go mad.

I think the 800 lbs. gorilla in the room, as they say, is the question of how high maintenance (or not) is the non-diving spouse? And how big of an issue is time together for the diver?

 

[NothingClever]

I was talking to a diver without a buddy who went to Bonaire. She would do boat dives in the am, staying at Buddy Dive then try to talk someone on the boat into an afternoon dive or night dive on the house reef. That is likely the best you are going to do.

For me the answer to Bonaire was solo certification, diving redundant and practicing the skills and solo diving but that may not be the right answer for you.

To heck with wandering around trying to get somebody to dive with.

Like you said, solo cert and then buy a DPV. I'd go out each night and own that coastline!